Programme for 2017

An Evening of Three Short Talks

The two Speakers discovered John Darby, a 16thC
Land Surveyor, through different routes. Between
them, they will explore the context in which he worked
and the large area which he covered.

Another Oliver legacyJohn Peake

Blakeney owes an enormous debt to Professor Frank
Oliver's foresight and love of the area over a century
ago. Examples from his photogaphic legacy will be
shown.

Johnson JexRichard Jefferson

Johnson Jex of Letheringsett, ‘an inventive
genius.......He lived and died a scientific anchorite’.

Tuesday 28 February 2017

A fisherman’s
prized possession

Rita Taylor

Ganseys were popular all around the North Sea and
the British and Irish coasts, from the early 19th
century to the middle of the 20th century; the tradition
followed the routes of the fishing fleets and made
its way to the small ports. The tradition lives on
in Great Britain with a few Norfolk fishermen, and
seems to be becoming popular as a fashion item too,
judging by the number of requests to knit them.

Tuesday 28 March 2017

The parish churches
of Norwich before 1400

Prof. Sandy Heslop

The impression conveyed by nearly all the surviving
parish churches in Norwich is that they late medieval
(1400-1550), however the earlier configuration of
more than half of them can be demonstrated. This
lecture brings the evidence together and assesses
it.

The two churches shown are St Mary Coslany and St
Etheldreda.

Tuesday 25 April 2017

The work of the
Norfolk Identification & Recording service

Andrew Rogerson

Norfolk County Council’s finds Identification
and Recording Service at Gressenhall records some
15,000 objects a year found by metal detector users
and others. Norfolk produces more finds than any
other part of the country and these are recorded
in the national Portable
Antiquities Scheme database.

The talk will give an insight into some of the fascinating
discoveries that have come from Norfolk over recent
years.

The pictures show a 7th-century. gold pendant with
inlaid Roman mosaic glass, from Gayton near King’s
Lynn.

Programme for 2016

Tuesday
26 January 2016

Three Short Talks

Diana Cooke1586 – Heydon’s Heraldry

Philip WestPrestons of HoltPhotographers & Postcard Publishers

Morris ArthurSnitterly – What’s
in a Name?

Tuesday
23 February 2016

The Norfolks in WW1:
Insights gleaned from letters & diaries

Kate Thaxton
Curator, Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum

Despite censorship, the personal letters of officers
and soldiers during the First World War can provide,
poignant, sometimes amusing and often surprising
insights into soldiering at that time. The Royal
Norfolk Regimental Museum holds some particularly
fine collections of letters which form the basis
of this illustrated talk.

Tuesday
29 March 2016

Anglo-Saxon East
Anglia: new discoveries

Tim Pestell

Norfolk and Suffolk formerly comprised the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of East Anglia. While historical sources
for this entity are few and far between, archaeological
discoveries are enabling us to understand its establishment
and life far better. This talk will examine some
of these recent finds and discuss what it tells us
about the kingdom. In particular I shall describe
the exciting hoard of goldwork discovered at Binham
over the last ten years.

Tuesday
26 April 2016

Please note this is a change
to the original programme. Susan Curran will now
be speaking in our 2016-17 season of talks.

"Not bad
for a provincial museum": the Fitzwilliam Museum,
1816-2016

Dr Lucilla Burn

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, celebrates the
200th anniversary of its foundation in 2016. Lucilla
has been researching the development of the Museum
over two centuries, using mainly contemporary sources
such as letters, diaries, museum and university reports.
The story that emerges both traces the growth of
the collections and reveal some of the intriguing
personalities who've shaped the Museum, from its
founder and first benefactor, Richard, 7th Viscount
Fitzwilliam of Merrion, to its thirteen Directors
to date, among whom MR James, of ghost-story fame,
was one. Her talk will introduce select highlights
from this story.

Summer Break

Tuesday
27 September 2016

The True
Poetry of World War 1: The Poets Time Forgot

Dr Martin Stephen

The famous poets of the Great War represent only a
minority of the poetry written by serving men and women
in the war. This talk reveals some of the outstanding
poetry written by largely unknown poets of the First
World War, the breadth, depth and variety of which
is not only extraordinary in itself, but gives a completely
different outlook on the war from that which has become
conventional. This is the war as experienced by those
who fought in it, as distinct from those who wrote
what we now think they ought to have written.

Martin Stephen was formerly High Master of St Paul’s
School and Headmaster of the Perse and Manchester Grammar
Schools. He has written many books, including the Henry
Gresham series and Diary of a Stroke and is an authority
on the poetry of the First World War.

Tuesday
25 October 2016

Money, Love & Status:
a Paston Marriage

Susan Curran

When Margery Paston (of the famous letter-writing
family) announced her intention to marry her family’s
land agent Richard Calle, her mother and brothers were
appalled. They did everything they could to prevent
the marriage, even at the cost of gossip and scandal.
They failed, and in 1469 Margery and Richard were married.
But why were her family so determined? Richard was
solvent, well educated and well liked; many must have
shared his own opinion that he was a good match for
Margery. The Pastons, by contrast, were flat broke
at the time and awash in enemies. Was it just snobbery
that prompted their opposition, or were there more
hidden factors in play?

Susan Curran is an author and publisher. Her illustrated
history book The Marriage of Margery Paston was
published in 2013. Read
More...

The talk will be preceded by a short AGM.

Tuesday
29 November 2016

Why the Norfolk Dialect?

Professor Peter Trudgill

Peter is a well known local author with a
long-standing Norfolk pedigree. He is President of
the Friends of Norfolk Dialect society and has a regular
column in the EDP. His latest book Dialect
Matters: Respecting Vernacular Language (Cambridge University
Press), is a collection of these columns. He will highlight
the history of the Norfolk dialect and explain why
it has such a distinctive structure.

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Christmas Mardle Night

Prof. Tom Williamson

Rethinking Ancient Woodland: recent research
on Norfolk’s woods

Tom Williamson is Professor of Landscape History
at the University of East Anglia and author of many
books and articles about the landscape of East Anglia,
and Norfolk in particular. His most recent books are
on Norfolk Gardens and Designed Landscapes (with Patsy
Dallas), An Environmental History of Wildlife in England
1650 – 1950 and Rethinking Ancient Woodland (with
Gerry Barnes).

Mardle night will also have various exhibits around the
room plus the chance to partake in seasonal refreshments.

Four Short Talks

Revisiting the Asylum

Stephen Cherry (UEA)

The Norfolk Lunatic Asylum: St Andrews Hospital
(1814-1998) uniquely used the same site and some
buildings in providing custody, control, care, comforts
and cures, but 'the asylum’ was also about
relationships between patients, their families, medical
and nursing staff; daily routines and treatments;
and local and external forms of authority: all involving
narratives which are difficult to establish. It was
also used as a 'War Hospital' during WW1 and as an
emergency civilian hospital in WW2. As an N.H.S.
hospital it was soon faced with closure but mental
health care in the community proved easier to prescribe
than to deliver, and arguably neither blueprints
nor sufficient resources have been provided.

Tuesday
31 March 2015

Roman Treasure Finds

Roger Bland (British Museum)

An extraordinarily rich group of hoards of precious
metal coins, jewellery and plate have been discovered
in Britain and especially East Anglia dating from
the last 50 years of the Roman rule in Britain: examples
are the Hoxne, Mildenhall, Thetford and Water Newton
treasures. These very rich finds have forced us to
rethink the traditional view that Britain and East
Anglia was something of a backwater in this period.
This talk will draw on a project to study why so
many hoards are known from Roman Britain to give
new insights into why they were buried.

Tuesday
28 April 2015

John Hales: A Holt Doctor

Mike Muncaster

Our insight into the life of a country doctor John
Hales, a prominent 19th century doctor in Holt, is
through the diary kept by his wife and the books
of his daughter Jane Hales.

Summer Break

September 2015

No Talk

Tuesday
27 October 2015

Travel by Stagecoach

Melanie Hilton (writing as Louise Allen)

Illustrated with original prints, maps and photographs
the talk will provide an overview of the development
of stage and mail coach services, look at the economic
and social importance of the stagecoach, the experience
of the travellers and the Norfolk routes including
Holt, Cromer and Norwich.

Up the Creek in Wells:
the 19th century development of the harbour

Roger Arguile

The overwhelming success of Wells as a trading port
in the middle of the nineteenth century was owed
to the foresight of a small group of business people
who were responsible for the major redevelopment
of both the harbour and the town. Their actions were
made possible by two local acts of parliament passed
on the same day.The town went from stagnation and
bankruptcy in the 1830s to the prosperity of the
1850s. Much of their work is still visible, including
the fine stone harbour.

Roger Arguile’s talk will describe the run
up to the passing of these acts, the opposition to
them and their effects. He has drawn his story from
the hand written records of the hearings before the
House of Lords which are held in their library.

Tuesday
15 December 2015

Christmas Mardle
Night

Geraldine Green (not Kate Faire as originally
publicised)

Rescue Wooden Boats
Kate will be talking about the work of Rescue Wooden Boats, Stiffkey
and particularly the restoration of the lifeboat Lucy Lavers and
her return to Dunkirk this summer on the 75th anniversary of the
evacuation from Dunkirk.

Mardle night will also have various exhibits around
the room plus the chance to partake in seasonal refreshments.

Programme for 2014

Tuesday
28 January 2014

Members' Talks

Open to visitors and members the evening comprises
three short talks from fellow members.

Birds, Beasts and Monsters

Margaret Forrester

A welcome return of a very popular lecturer. Margaret
will be revealing beasts and monsters in medieval
art.

Tuesday
25 March 2014

East Anglian Goldsmiths 1500 - 1750

Mary Fewster

Surviving objects show how local craftsmen working
in gold and silver provided church and secular objects
for the wealthy. East Anglian goldsmiths (and the
term includes those working in silver) provided both
church and secular plate to the wealthy and heavily
populated counties of East Anglia. This talk focuses
on the years between 1500 and 1750, the period of
most of the surviving locally-made items, and gives
insights into the craftsmen and their work.

Supplying the Beer: life
on the road in 18th century Norfolk

Margaret Bird

The lecture will focus on the hardships and dangers
of work delivering to public houses on top of all
the tasks in the fields, maltings and brewery.

Margaret is the author of "A local 18th century
diarist Mary Hardy" a new study of working and
religious life in the Blakeney area. The five volumes
are based on the diaries of Mary Hardy and the author
has generously presented a copy to the History Centre.

Programme for 2013

Tuesday
29 January 2013

Mardle Night: History
in the Making

Bernard Bishop, Graham Lubbock & Johnny Webster will
reminisce about their work in the local and changing landscape.
These three local stalwarts all born and bred in the area
and all still managing to make their livings within the
natural environment have agreed to talk about the things
that have changed and those that are constant.

Bernard Bishop has been Warden of the NWT reserve at
Cley since his father retired from the same position
in 1979. Graham Lubbock has been one of the wardens on
Blakeney Point for nearly thirty years, while Johnny
Webster has followed his father in harvesting the natural
produce from the marine environment it should be a stimulating
and informative evening.

River Bure

The subjects of the History Society meetings don’t
often stray towards the Broads but for this meeting Philip
will be exploring the landscape and agriculture of the
upper Bure through photographs and postcards.Philip West

Cities, Cogs and Commerce

Historically the North Sea was the super-highway for trade
and people, Brian will explore the material culture of this
world.
NB This is the lecture Brian had hope to give last December. A short AGM
will be held at the start of this meeting. Dr Brian Ayers, Research Associate, UEA

City Clerks or Ploughboys: c1820-1940

Painting the Nativity

Margaret Forrester

4th to 16th Century

Development of the iconography
e.g. Was it a stable or a cave?
When did the magi turn into kings?
Where did the midwives come from?
Could we dispense with the ox and the ass?
Was Joseph superfluous to requirements?

Please note this is a change to the event advertised
in the July newsletter.

2011

Tuesday January 25th - Members' Night:
three short contributions by members.

Carole King: 'Out and About' - transport and leisure 1900-1950

Malcolm Paton: My Nelson Connection

Richard Jefferson: W J J Bolding & the Hamonds

Tuesday February 22nd - 'Where We Live': In
this lecture Dr Bridges
will explore the shape of the land in which we live and
the distribution of
settlements in the area. Dr E M Bridges

Tuesday March 29th - Industrial Norfolk: a
return of a very popular lecturer from 2010 now talking on the
development and ultimate demise of industry in Norfolk from
the 18th century onwards. M Fewster

Tuesday April 26th - Faden's
Norfolk: Maps are fascinating and Andrew’s
recent research on Faden’s map of 1797 illuminates
our understanding of the landscape. Dr MacNair has made a
detailed study of Faden and the map, recently publishing
a book on the
subject. Dr
Andrew MacNair

Tuesday September 27th - Eye
in the Sky: aerial photos are
used to reveal the wealth of archaeology in the Norfolk countryside and
particularly North Norfolk. Dr Richard Hoggett (Coastal
Heritage Officer, Gressenhall)

Tuesday October
25th - Treasure: this
lecture will look at the ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ and its impact
on our understanding of Anglo-Saxon England, including East
Anglia. Roger Bland (Head of Department
of Portable Antiquities and Treasure, British Museum)

Tuesday
November 29th - Transforming a Landscape – North Norfolk
1700-1900:
Jon will draw on his personal research on the heathlands
and the development of agriculture in the area.Jon
Gregory (Department of History, UEA)

Tuesday December 13th
- Christmas Mardle: this year an innovation, an
historic last performance of ‘Bert & Maude’ (alias Richard
Newton & Janet Harcourt) – local Norfolk dialect and
wit at its best. Plus exhibits about local villages and families.

2010

Tuesday January 26th - Members Night: an entertaining
series of short talks by members.

Richard Jefferson: Thanks to Google

Pam Peake: Ralph Greenaway of Wiveton - London Grocer

Rev. Neil Batcock: Painted Medieval Churches

Tuesday February 23rd - The Herring Fishery: for
many centuries herring were caught around the Norfolk coast, culminating
in a major industry in Great Yarmouth in the 19th and 20th centuries: Dr
M Fewster

Tuesday
March 30th - Cromer Lifeboats: one of the most famous
RNLI stations, Come and learn more about its history: Richard
Leeds

Tuesday
April 27th - Boudica: an iconic figure in the history
of East Anglia. Yet what is fact or myth? Learn
more from the author of two recent books on Boudica and her
kingdom: Dr John Davies (Norwich Castle Museum)

Tuesday
September 28th - Whirlygig: a fascinating and intriguing
story from the Cold War: Fred Butcher

Tuesday October 26th - Keeping your hand in: a social
history of the GP and cottage hospitals in East Anglia: Dr Steven
Cherry (Reader in History, UEA)

Tuesday November 30th - Ruined and Disused Churches of Norfolk: in
1991 Neil published a seminal work on the churches of Norfolk
and in this talk he will review and expand some of his ideas: Rev
Neil Batcock

Tuesday December 14th - Christmas Mardle: celebrating
20 years of the BAHS with a mixture of exhibits, seasonal festivities.

2009

Tuesday January 27th - Members' Night: three short contributions by members.

David Perryman: I don't believe it – or do I?

John Peake: A view of Blakeney in the early 19th century

Gerald Cubitt: Saving the lives of Shipwrecked Mariners along the
North Norfolk Coast

Tuesday February 24th - Norfolk Archaeology from the Air – new
perspectives: from the leading exponent
of the use of aerial photography in archaeology in Norfolk: Derek Edwards

Tuesday
March 31st - Portraits in Tudor Norfolk: explore
some of the influential families during the Tudor period
through their surviving portraits David Yaxley

Tuesday April 28th - King Henry’s Band: this will
be both informative and entertaining covering
a wide variety of early instruments and music from the Middle
Ages to the Renaissance. Robert FitzGerald

Tuesday September 29th - Wall Paintings in Churches: recently
Matthew has been managing the restoration of an important
series of wall paintings. He will draw on this experience
in this lecture. Matthew Champion

Tuesday October 27th - The Civil War and Kings Lynn:
this lecture will draw on personal research to explore the
effects of the Civil War in some areas of Norfolk. Susan
Yaxley

Tuesday November 24th - Coke of Holkham a celebration
of this great Norfolk agriculturalist by his
biographer. Susanna Wade Martins

Tuesday December 15th - Christmas Mardle:
a mixture of exhibits about local villages and families,
seasonal festivities and a short talk on rare breed animals.

Saturday August 23rd - Local History Day: An
exhibition organised by the society's History Centre to be held
in
St Nicholas Church Blakeney from 10am till 4pm. There will
be displays on the churches of the Haven, local families
and personalities, photographs, maps, news from local villages
and tours of the church and graveyard.

2007

Tuesday January 30th - Members Night: a medley of short
talks with something for everybody:

Travel to Walsingham: Frank Hawes

1910 Domesday Survey: Pamela Peake

Green Man: Geoff Worton

Tuesday February 27th - The Burnhams - another haven:
the archaeology and development of a port and the villages: John
Smallwood

Tuesday March 27th - 'The Devil's Fiery Dance': Books and Newspapers in
North Norfolk in the 16th century: Clive Wilkins-Jones

Tuesday April 24th - The Early History of Norwich: an archaeological
survey of a fine city by the pre-eminent authority: Brian Ayers

Saturday August 18th -
Summer Public Lecture - In Praise of Norfolk Market Towns: explore
with the speaker the fine array of market towns in the
county from Downham Market in the west, Swaffham in the
south and closer to home Holt, Fakenham and Aylsham: Chris Barringer

Thursday August 23rd -
'Open Day' at the History Centre Blakeney: this
is an opportunity to see and use some of the resources
of the Centre. The Centre is situated at the rear of the
Village Hall off Langham Road in Blakeney. There is ample
parking space

Tuesday September 25th
- Agriculture in North Norfolk revisited: a view
of a changing scene through photographs; a return visit
with some new pictures: Philip West

Tuesday October 30th -
Admiral Cloudsley Shovell - a local man: remembering
the tercentenary of the tragic death in the Scilly
Isles of one of Norfolk's great admirals from Cockthorpe; Simon
Harris

Tuesday November 27th - The Rise of Holiday
Architecture - Cromer: the 19th and early 20th century
saw the development of the seaside holiday and the need for
accommodation: Andy Boyce